Cammie Robbiano

San Antonio mountain biker works to defend her two state titles

Interview By Joshua Trudell

Photo By Josh Huskin

My first time on a BMX bike, it wasn’t my thing at all. I was 10. But I watched my brothers out at Flat Rock Ranch, in Comfort, during a mountain biking race, and I said, ‘Dad, that kind of looks like fun. I want to try it.’ He said, ‘If you eat this can of tuna—I hated tuna; I still do—I’ll buy you a bike.’ I totally thought he was kidding, but I said, ‘OK.’ I ate the can of tuna, and a week later, I had a bike.

It was terrifying the first time I was out on the trail. I cried a lot. It was our first ride, and there was just a little drop off on the trail (that we had to ride down). I look at it now and I’m like, ‘Why would I cry at that?’ But I sat there and told my dad, ‘I can’t do this.’

But I kept riding. When I first got serious about the sport, I tried indoor training, but I just wanted to be out on the trails. Now I compete during the fall with the Texas Mountain Bike Racing Association and in the spring with the San Antonio High School Composite Mountain Biking team, which includes people from schools around the area.

We practice Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday. On those three days, I work so hard. I try to ride with the fast boys on the team. I kill myself. People ask me if it’s weird being on a team with (mostly) boys and I say: No. They make me so much faster. If I didn’t have the boys on our team, I would not be this fast. They push me every single time I go to practice and are part of the reason I’ve won two state championships (in the individual girls division).

We all race each other, and we’re all so supportive of each other. It’s not like someone would say, ‘I don’t like you because you’re faster than me.’ We want to win. We want to win badly. But if our teammate beats us, that’s great. It’s still points for our team.

Most of our races last an hour and a half to over two hours. We compete in Comfort and Tyler and other places where there are hills and rocky terrain to ride on.

I definitely want to cycle in college. There’s no doubt about it. Whether it’s staying in Texas and riding with a club or going somewhere for cycling—I wouldn’t want to stop. It’s probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. So it reminds me I can get over really hard obstacles no matter what, whether it is physical or mental. It’s really brought me to a great point in my life, because it makes me appreciate all the people I have around me.